The Hollywood Starlet Caper

Prologue

PrologueA shot rang out. Years of experience as a private eye had taught me, d**k DeWitt, that this meant trouble, and trouble is my middle name. Well, not really. It's Egbert, but that's a long story—and trouble too.

Hollywood. Home of the silver screen. Home of a thousand dreams and nine hundred and ninety-nine broken hearts. And for God's sake, home of Rin Tin Tin! That awful guy Hitler is making a lot of noise and threats across the Atlantic, but who would have thought that Tinseltown, right here in America, could be so rough on one's health? But there you have it, and there I was, right where I should not have been. All those bullets that go whizzing by in the Westerns are blanks, they tell me. But the one that I heard was the real McCoy.

I should have stayed at home. Should have, could have. Yeah, now I tell myself.